1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for providing use of application software. More particularly, the present invention relates to a technology for imposing fee on the use of the application software, and especially to a system, method, program and a medium for recording the program, which impose fee upon software used for helping analyze great quantity of data and helping decision-making, such as an Enterprise Resource Planning ERP package or a Supply Chain Planning SCP package.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, application softwares for helping analyze great quantity of data and helping decision-making, such as an Enterprise Resource Planning ERP package or a Supply Chain Planning SCP package, are being distributed in the market. For the use of such softwares, four kinds of methods have been proposed as follows. The first method is to purchase the software recorded in a recording medium such as floppy disks FD or a compact disks CD, which is so called a ‘product purchasing method’. The second method is to pay a certain amount of rental fee to the corporate providing the software by a regular period such as monthly without purchasing the software, which is so called a ‘product rental method’. The third method is to pay a certain amount of usage fee to the corporate providing the software by a regular period without purchasing the software, which is so called a ‘fixed service fee imposing method’. The fourth method is to pay a flexible amount of fee, which is imposed on the basis of the time and the frequency of use of the software, to the corporate providing the software without purchasing the software, which is so called a ‘specific service fee imposing method’.
According to the recent trend that the business environment changes rapidly, in order to reduce costs caused by the possession of something, the customer enterprises are increasing that use the application software providing a rapid service with low costs through an out sourcing service provided by an application service provider ASP. Consequently, such customer enterprises pay for the software according to the ‘fixed service fee imposing method’ or ‘specific service fee imposing method’, or according to both of the methods in combination.
Among those methods, the customer enterprises tend to prefer the ‘fixed service fee imposing method’ or the combination of the ‘fixed service fee imposing method’ and the ‘specific service fee imposing method’ in the point that such methods are more useful to make an estimate.
However, the ‘fixed service fee imposing method’ does not determine the fee on the basis of the substantial use of the software. Thus, it is advantageous for the customer enterprise, which uses the software frequently or for a great deal of time, but disadvantage for the customer enterprise not doing so. For that reason, that method would be unfair.
Furthermore, in the case of the combination of the ‘fixed service fee imposing method’ and the ‘specific service fee imposing method’, the use fee becomes inevitably a deferred payment. For such a reason, the corporation providing the software is usually burdened with a risk in collecting the fee.